CPU for CPU bound Games @ 144hz? i5 vs i7

[esbndk]

My system: i5 4570, Asus Strix 1070 Ti, 16GB, 1920x1080p 144hz monitor (MSI Optix Mag24C)

 

Hi

 

My question is this; Would I get better FPS switching my i5 4570 out with a 4790K? How do I know if it makes use of the Hyper Threading in the i7?

 

Or do I need an 8700K and a new MOBO and ram (or is the 8600k enough with the 2 extra cores) That is a lot more money than a used 4790K

 

I think there many gamers who would like to or needs to know about CPUs in regard to 120+ Hz panels.

 

So I just got my first 144hz panel. I play The Division which is "fairly CPU bound". The Snow Drop engine can utilise more than 4 cores. (It says this below)

 

"

Tom’s Hardware: How does The Division’s Snowdrop engine utilize multi-core CPUs? Is there a limit to the number of cores it’s able to use?

 

Anders: The Snowdrop engine, and in particular The Division, is very heavily threaded. The systems in the game are built around a task scheduler with dependencies set for each task. So, as soon as all of the dependencies for a task are completed, that task will execute. This means we aren’t tied to a specific number of cores and can scale fairly fluidly.

 

Tom’s Hardware: So, how meaningful is it to support four or more cores if most gameplay is graphics-bound? What does a more sophisticated host processor get a Division enthusiast, and is it better to pursue IPC/clock rate or more parallelism?

 

Anders: We are fairly CPU-heavy, and on many configurations we are bound by the CPU, not by the GPU, so more cores is definitely meaningful. Having eight or more cores is certainly not necessary, but if the cores are there, we will use them."

 

- https://www.tomshardware.co.uk/multi-core-cpu-scaling-directx-11,review-33682-7.html

 

 

 

100% CPU / 45% GPU Utilisation

When I run Division at Low Settings (V-Sync off), I get 100% CPU utilisation and from 40% to 60% on the GPU my frame rate averages about 100 I think. It goes up to 120ish when looking at a single wall to 90 FPS running through city and drops to 60-80 when there are players or npc models in the scene

 

I Checked in 2 ways. First I ran at 1080p in fullscreen mode and had the resource monitor running in the background, after a couple minutes gameplay I would alt tab out an check the graphs.

 

Then I used windowed mode first in 1400x900p so I could check simultaneously and after in 1900x1020p  with just a sliver of resource monitor visible.

 

When I test in 60Hz 60FPS I get around 80-90% on both CPU and GPU on High and Ultra

 

I could probably have done a better job writing this, maybe made it a more generally applicable topic. I will make it into general topic that applies to everyone if the information turns up during this thread.

[Phentos]

Either the 8600K or the 8700K would be a HUGE upgrade for you. Which CPU you choose from just depends on how much money you're wanting to spend.

 

A buddy of mine plays the Division and other games with his 8600K heavily OCed to a tad over 5Ghz and the game performs extremely well. He has a 1080p 165hz panel and he's never complained about frame drops. Though he also owns a 1080TI.

[esbndk]

Yeah sounds good - But if I could get by with a 4790K for $200 that would be even better (for my wallet)

 

But great to know the i5 six core can do it - Thanks for letting me know : ) 

[Phentos]

16 minutes ago, esbndk said:

Yeah sounds good - But if I could get by with a 4790K for $200 that would be even better (for my wallet)

 

But great to know the i5 six core can do it - Thanks for letting me know : ) 

4790K should handle the game very well with a 1070TI. 

 

When I first started playing the Division I was still on a 2600K (overclocked though) and I was getting noticeably smoother frametimes and slightly better framerates than my friend (same one as above) who had an i5 4670K with a modest overclock at the time. Both he and I had the same GPUs at the time, R9 390s.

[esbndk]

ok - how many fps though? where you at 60 or above 120?

 

My setup runs the game on ultra at 60 almost perfect - But above 100 FPS it maxes out CPU load even on low settings.

 

But it sounds like Snow Drop uses the extra threads, so that is good news

[esbndk]

Problem solved : )

 

Got this:

i7 3930K
Asrock X79 Extreme4-M

 

and it got my Division FPS up to 250FPS

 

My 1070Ti can now spread its owly wings and soar (I know it's stupid but I am just so happy I had to)